Poll: Hispanics heavily Democratic

Hispanics in America are more than twice as likely to lean Democratic than Republican, a new poll says.

Fifty-one percent of Hispanics identified as Democrat or leaned Democrat, compared with 24 percent who said they were Republican or leaned GOP, according to a Gallup Poll out Monday. Twenty percent identified themselves as independent. The rest are undecided or did not respond.

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As Republicans consider ways to increase their appeal among Hispanic adults, it is worth noting that Republicans made little progress over 2012 in terms of winning new Hispanic supporters, while the Democratic Party made noticeable gains,” Gallup said.

“Perhaps even more worrisome for the GOP is its poor performance among young Hispanic adults. While the GOP is not particularly popular with any Hispanic age groups, those aged 18 to 34 constitute almost half of the overall Hispanic adult population. Indeed, they are the engine of the Hispanic vote and its future. Gallup’s data indicate that this picture is not going to get any brighter for the Republicans on its own, merely by virtue of generational shifts. Despite the higher rate of U.S. nativity among young Hispanics compared with those 35 and older, young Hispanic adults are just as entrenched in the Democratic Party, thus perpetuating the high degree of difficulty Republicans face in trying to make inroads in this important and growing community.”

Gallup used its daily tracking data comprised of 26,264 Hispanics between Jan. 2 and Dec. 31, 2012, and Gallup says with 95 percent confidence that the results have a margin of error of plus or minus 1 percentage point.